CYRIL LUCARIS His Life and Work by G. A. Hadjianboniou

CYRIL LUCARIS His Life and Work • • * • • By G. A. Hadjianboniou PREFACE Cyril Lucarie was a great Greek, one of the greatest in modern Greek history. He lived in a very interesting time - a sad period in the history of his countfy* A period of slavery and decline for the Greek people, during which the Church of Rome, on the one hand, was making a successful at«* tempt to make up for its losses in the West, by invading the Greek East, and England and France,on the other hand, were struggling for supremacy in the Near East* At such a time Lucaris attempted a great work for his own people, in which cause he was called to suflfer much and ultimately to lay down his life. The above sets t±OK*&EW to the present thesis its limits* It has a triple aim* This is « To draw a picture of Lucaris, as a man, as this picture can be reconstructed from his own correspondence and from kt* testimonies of people who knew him. To set that picture against the historical background pf Lucaris 1 own time, and in order to do this I have been obliged to make use of material, which has not al~ ways a direct bearing on the life«*story of Lucaris* And, finally, to unfold the work which Lucaris attempted to do for his people, assess its real and lasting value and account for the comparative paucity of its results* Contents Early Years I Mission to Poland 24 Patriarch of Alexandria 36 On the Ecumenical Throne 51 Beginning of Troubles 65 "In Perils from my own Countrymen...." 75 The "Congregatio" gets angry 86 A Printing-house is set up in Constantinople 95 "Confessio KLdei" III More attacks by fellow-countrymen ISO The Two Cyrils 145 The Martyrdom 156 Achievements and Assessments 168 Bibliography 180 Chapter 1. 13 A R L Y YEARS. Hs was only a "boy of twelve when in 1584 he arrived at Venice, (l) and that was the first time he had gone so far away from home. Many days and many nights he spent on the ship, "before there rose suddenly before his eyes out of the sea, as if by magic, the city of the Lagoons. And what a world that was into which he stepped] "What a contrast to the poor, homely environment of his own little town in far off Crete, with its winding cobbled streets, its humble houses, its gardens and orchards, and an occasional (J stray goat finding its way «nto its streets. How different from, the great, noisy city, with its stately buildings, and its big squares, and its watery lanes. Probably little Constantine Lucaris went to lodge at the 'Salvatico 1 , or at the 'Leon Bianco 1 , or at some othet of the famous and flourishing hotels of the city. For at a time when travelling in Italy was a rather risky affair for foreigners, who happened to hold religious views other than those approved by Rome, Venice had flung her gates open, and a continuous stream of travellers were coming in and going out of her canals. But he was not left long in the hotel, for, almost at the same time with him another Greek had come to Venice, who was quite famous in his time, and he took the little Cretan boy under his protection. Haximos Margunios (2) had already been consecrated as bishop of the island of Cythera, off the southern coast of G-reece, but for some reason the Venetian authorities of the island would not permit him to land there and exercise the duties of his -2- office. So Margunios betook himself to Venice, which was already well known to him from the years of his youth, when he had succeeded in spend ing there thtf whol§ of a goodly paternal inheritance, in his vain effort to set up a Greek printing-house in the city. Here therefore he came to stay until such a time as the permission would be granted to him to go and settle in his island See. And it was fortunate for young Constantine Lucaris that he arrived at Venice at the time of Margunios 1 self-exile there. For though the latter had one or two queer ideas, which had occasionally landed him into hot water, and on one occasion had brought him within sight of a Roman prison, he was an excellent man - a man of great culture and of an upright character. He was a little of a poet too - his "Anacreontian Hymns" (3) having attained the glory of repeated editions. He was steeped in classical studies, as one can gather from his letters, which are written in a style of irreproachable classical correctness. But besides the cultured mind, old Margunios had a warm human heart too, and now and then that heart could break through the hedges of classical correctness, and forget itself in the more homely "Demotic" idiom, as when, in one of his letters to his young protege, he so far departed from his classical standards, as to actually call him "My la& Constantine 11 . (4) Such a grievous lapse, however, could only occur in connection with one whom he loved, and for that young compatriot of his - for he too hailed from Crete - he had conceived a real love. It was by that man that Constantine was taught his Greek, his Latin, and his Italian, and under him he took his first steps in Philosophy. It is moving to see in the letters which teacher and pupil exchanged on their occasional partings, the paternal care with which the old man was following the studies of the boy, and the pride which he felt over his progress, -3- In one of his letters he commends his pupil for the beautiful expressions he had used in one of his own, and although he is obliged to remark that unfortunately the handwriting was not equally beautiful, he expresses the hope that since the greater gift was given him, the lesser one would follow in time. (5) To judge from Lucaris 1 manuscripts which have come down to us, the wish of his old teacher was left unfulfilled. Margunios 1 love for his pupil was returned to him ana rich measure. Constantine came to love him as a second father, and it seems that this love was the recognition of something greater than the teaching of Latin and Greek, for Hargunios somewhere calls the young boy "his son in Christ". (6) At any rate the influence which the teacher exercised on the mind of the pupil was great and manifold. In more than one respect he had become the ideal, which the young boy had set himself to copy. Constantine even affected the peculiar style of his teacher, for after he had parted with him, one of his friends writes to tell him that he detected a "Margunizing" tendency in his letters.(7) So it was through Margunios' window that Constantine had his first glimpse of Venice. Of course if he had meant to see Venice in the height of her glory, he had arrived about a hundred years too late. G-one were the days when the Republic was the clearing-house of the world. Gone were the days when six commercial fleets were equipped and manned every year, with the corresponding caravans, and were dispatched as far as Russia, and Siam, and India in the East, as far as Spain and the British ^sles in the West. The three hundred odd cargo-boats, of which the fleets were composed, carried the flag of St. Mark proudly on all the sea-lanes to bring back to Venice the merchandise of distant countries, and so long as the Republic's hand held firmly the monopoly of the world's commerce, the riches which flooded her was something fabulous. To all -4- this, however, a young Portuguese sailor had long ago put an end. The year 1497 saw Vasco da Gajna rounding the Cape of G-ood Hope, and a new route- a water passage - was discovered to the ^-ndies and the East. A passage which was free from the heavy expenses of the caravans, and from the taxations which were imposed by the cities that lay on their route, and from the troublesome and expensive interruptions of the journey caused by the passing of the cargo from ship to caravan, and from caravan to ship, ^t was not long before the new route became popular, and Venice found herself suddenly outside the avenues which the commerce began to follow. Priuli(8) records in his ChrDnicle what a heavy blow the Venetians felt it to be when the news of the new discovery reached their city: "When this news reached Venice, the whole city felt it greatly, and remained stupefied, and the wisest held it as the worst news which could ever come." So young Constantine missed the zenith, but he saw a beautiful sunset. In the lands of the Mediterranean the name of Venice was still great and the legend of her riches still alive. Long after Lucaris' day, many a young Greek mother sang her little one to sleep by reassuring her that she had ordered rt ....... In Venice her wardrobe, And her jewellery." The day of the great Republic was not yet over, and those closing hours were lived up to the glorious past. Constantine would be sure on Ascension Day to witness that beautiful ceremony of the "Espousals" of the Doge with the Sea. An English writer (jj who happened to visit Venice shortly after Lucaris had been there, has left us a description of that remarkable rite.

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